Karl Gerber
Karl Gerber was a Nazi occultist who became the fifth host of Edward Tamaron. He was a native of Earth-20181, and had been unknowingly contacted years earlier by Tamaron on Earth-Alpha. Tamaron used Gerber's body to continue his goal of defeating the Boston Group, and in doing so was responsible for starting World War II five years early. In 1932, two years before the War began, he literally unleashed Hell on Earth, causing an infernal continent to threaten Europe. This lured the Boston Group out of retirement and onto the continent, where he battled them by releasing the Thing in the Pit, a gigantic Hell monster. For awhile he had been filled with a desire to make the beast into his host, and thus tried to jump into it; but the creature, he learned too late, had no brain, instead having a “mind” in another dimension. The alien anatomy of the beast overwhelmed him, and he was plunged into madness. The Group managed to slay the creature, which created an energy burst not unlike one he had already experienced, which imprisoned him in Hell for many years. Biography Before Tamaron Karl Gerber was born in the early years of the 20th Century in Germany. He had originally had the mind to be an engineer, but failures in that department—brought on by inherent faults in his learning development—brought him into a deep depression. When he was in his twenties, he ended up reading Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf ''(1926), which caused him to fall behind the National Socialist movement with a deep sense of antisemitism. In his aid of Hitler and his battle against the Jews, he decided to take a research-based approach. He began to study the Jewish faith in an attempt to prove its inferiority to Christianity or even atheism. As a result, he began to learn of the Kabbalah, which drew him into studying the occult. Though he insisted it was for anti-Jewish research only, the idea of gaining magical power intrigued him deeply. As this was taking place, the disembodied form of Edward Tamaron was slowly making its way across the sea. The magical energies surrounded Gerber had radiated back in time, to a point in 1922 (roughly five years earlier at this point), where Tamaron had been disembodied by a struggle with Ythogtha and the Boston Group. Sensing Gerber's presence (and being partially aided by a prior affinity for Gerber's form, caused by contact with the man during World War II on Earth-Alpha) flowing into the timestream, Tamaron had begun a slow crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to make Gerber into a host. He reached Gerber by the time the ascending Nazi had “peaked” in his absorption of magic through its work. The two communicated and Tamaron realized it was his destiny to become Gerber and communicate with his past self on Earth-Alpha. He decided to knock Gerber off balance by masquerading as a demon accidentally summoned by Gerber's magic. Stunned by fright, Tamaron moved into the man's mind and dispersed his soul. With that, Karl Gerber became the Tamaron Entity's latest host. Setting the Scene Knowing his history, Tamaron became aware at once that he was in what was to be Nazi Germany. He remembered that on Earth-Alpha, stories of the Nazis and the occult were widespread; on behalf of the CIA, he had once interviewed former Nazi scientist Helmold Ebersbach to that effect. He realized that Gerber was likely Ebersbach's counterpart on Earth-20181. Presently, he faced the choice of serving the Nazis as an occultist, or escaping from Germany before the rise of Hitler and trying to rebuild the Order of Draco to exact revenge on the Boston Group. Throughout his entire life even he had been critical of the Nazis, even through their use of magic; but he remembered some rumors that Hitler may have been aided by the Antichrist, or been the Antichrist. He had once been a sort of Antichrist himself, in the form of the Kran Kôr, so perhaps it was his destiny now to serve Hitler. He even contemplated ''becoming ''Hitler, starting World War II, and overriding Hitler's tactical mistakes, thus conquering the world. However, he remembered that when he had spoken to his now-past self, he had not possessed Hitler, and was still serving the Nazi cause. Aware of the concept of time paradoxes (despite having seen a few accomplished at the hands of the King of Time), he wanted to avoid possibly damaging the Multiverse (and thus himself). He would serve Hitler as the Nazis' chief occult expert. Perhaps he could use the force of the Nazis to accomplish his planned revenge against the Boston Group. He knew from Earth-Alpha's history that Hitler had also been interested in the occult, having been superstitious for some time, relying on fortune tellers and the like. Gerber had already had an ongoing friendship with Hitler; through this, he could gain great power, and thus the resources he would need to compile a strike against the Boston Group. Using his natural charisma, he began to charm Hitler into promising him great things once he became Chancellor. In return, Gerber pretended to use divination to reveal critical details concerning Hitler's rise to power; in reality, he was merely using his knowledge of history to prevent opponents of the future Fuehrer from stopping him. As such, Nazi ideology caught on much faster than it did “normally”; President Paul von Hindenburg was inclined to appoint Hitler to the position of Chancellor as early as 1930, when, on Earth-Alpha, the Nazi leader was still bargaining to make friends among the German officer corps. However, Tamaron had neglected to remember that Hitler had gained the ability to become Fuehrer due to the Reichstag Fire; this critical piece of history never happened in this altered timeline, meaning that the two still faced political opposition from the office of the Chancellor. Tamaron had another chance when a Communist fanatic attempted to kill Hitler; the pair used this as an opportunity to ban Communism in Germany. Yet, because Tamaron had accelerated the turn of events in this timeline, this action was not met with the same acceptance that it had on Earth-Alpha. Communist riots resulted, and Tamaron was forced to act quickly. With the assistance of Hitler's followers, as well as moles among the Communist rebels, Tamaron maneuvered the uprising into assassinating President von Hindenburg in early 1931. Despite critics from the liberal side of the spectrum, Hitler was made President due to bullying amongst the members of the Republic. Using his power of veto, Hitler began to manipulate himself into the position of Fuehrer. He used his Presidential abilities to supply large amounts of money towards Tamaron, who began to use them to gather followers who could assist him in a new ritual. He had lost the Pearls of Ythogtha that had allowed him to access the Hell dimension, but this new spell would allow access to that realm in another way: it would actually bring section of the dimension into the same dimensional plane as Earth. The Continent Crisis In early 1932, Hitler's Presidency was going strong; but he was still irked by the Jewish presence in Germany, and found he could not begin his plan of elimination—which would become the Final Solution—with the powers he had as President. Tamaron, as Gerber, faked that he supported the idea and was working on a world-disrupting plot that would create the chaos Hitler needed to become dictator. In reality, this was true, as the ritual neared completion. Ten years after the last battle Tamaron had with the Boston Group, an enormous piece of a Hell continent appeared over Germany. The German people were terrified and begged Hitler for help. He began to mobilize the Nazi military—which had already replaced all Republic armed forces—to deal with the appearance of the continent, using it as an excuse to pass legislation which allegedly empowered the military to deal with the crisis. Some of these new laws ended up sending a military-backed science team to the continent, which Gerber ended up leading. Though the main plan was to lure the Boston Group to Germany for a final battle, he also did want to learn more about the possible civilizations and creatures that lived in the Hell dimension, to possibly gain new magical secrets. During this time, he constructed a data packet on the continent, which had already become international news. He claimed in the packet that within a month, the rest of the “Hell planet” would phase through and consume Earth in its mass; this was in fact false, though he could have replicated his ritual enough times to perform such a feat. This data folder was then “accidentally” leaked to the FBI, which Tamaron knew still maintained an occult program—one that was linked to the Boston Group. As he intended, the Boston Group was contacted by their former bosses to come out of retirement to confront the menace. And, as he had hoped, they agreed. Taking Welshie's plane, the Group—now consisting of Welshie, Gregory O'Grady (who was running for President), Michael Owen (the ward of the late Snaps McGee), Doctor Clancy Clementine, Thomas J. Carlson, and an eccentric hunter named Ashley Jean-Claude—landed on the western end of the continent. By this point in time, Gerber had seen the native inhabitants of the continent, and knew—from experience—that they were extremely hostile. It would take a long while for the Group to make their way across the continent; and they would have to travel on foot, thanks to the “lost” dossier hinting at the science camp's secrecy. The Group began the arduous process eastward, taking their plane with them slowly but surely. During this time, Gerber began to perform research on a large creature he discovered—the aptly named “Thing in the Pit”. The monster was like a massive beetle, covered in “hairs” that actually more resembled human arms. It was almost the size of a city, but dwelt inside an impossibly deep ravine on the continent. It was essentially a mindless beast, but Gerber could sense its magical aura; under the command of a powerful mind, it could potentially travel between dimensions, and unleash devastating beams of force such as those used by Ythogtha. Gerber began to formulate a theory that the creature, being mindless, simply had an empty space where a mind could take root—thus, he could make it into his next host. He decided that this would be his battle plan; he would make the Thing into his next body, which would be his ultimate weapon to destroy the Boston Group. There was no ghost helper to resurrect them, as had happened in the battle with Ythogtha. This would be their end. During his research on the Pit-Thing, Tamaron sensed an attempt at communication across the void between universes. He realized that it was his past self on Earth-Alpha, working his wartime scrying experiments. The two Tamarons observed each other for sometime, Gerber briefly explaining who he was, trying to get his “lines” right to the best of his memory. He did not want to risk damaging the Multiverse by explaining the younger Tamaron's future to him; he did not even reveal that he was Tamaron's future self. Later he wondered what would have occurred if he had in fact given “spoilers” of the future to the younger man, but decided he had made the right choice. During the communication, he had already sensed what he called a “chronal echo”, which he feared greatly. There was at least one encounter between Gerber and the Boston Group before the former's planned “final battle”. Gerber and a squad of Nazi soldiers were out performing one last field study on the native skeletons that lived on the continent. They had traveled far west of the camp, and discovered that the Group had moved faster than Gerber had predicted. They two ended up clashing, with Gerber using a spell to sap their strength and speed. During this battle, he mocked them, revealing (with the knowledge that none of the soldiers he had brought with him would survive) that he was actually Charles Titan, their old foe, still alive and planning to destroy them. He was annoyed when the Group did not seem to hear or care. In the end, he used one of the last soldiers as a meat shield before escaping in a truck. The Group pursued him back to the Pit, where he began releasing the creature. Gerber felt confident that this time he would be victorious. The Thing in the Pit As the Thing in the Pit emerged, Gerber began the process of projecting his astral form, to make the beast into a host. He succeeded, with the Boston Group barely noticing that Gerber had seemingly keeled over and died. However, as the Group began battling the monster, he made a horrifying discovery. The reason the Thing was mindless was that its anatomy did not support a brain—at least, any Earth-standard brain. The confusing and multidimensional anatomy of the monster suddenly imprisoned Tamaron's soul inside of the body, immediately driving him insane. Ultimately, what had happened was that the Thing's body had broken off a shard of Tamaron's astral form, and imprisoned that piece. The shard was causing the monster to suffer great physical and psychological pain; though mindless, the shard was infiltrating the instinctive processes of the beast, which gave it brief flashes of human behavior. Thus the Boston Group observed the monster, as it rampaged, trying to cry out the names Tamaron, Marvel, Krankor, and Titan; though these names meant nothing to the Group. The battle between the confused, agony-wracked Thing and the Group was swift. Striking at a weak point until the beetle-like wings of the monster, it quickly died. As it did so, it unleashed a burst of energy that both freed and trapped Tamaron. The Tamaron Entity was bound to the rock of the infernal continent, which, now lacking a sorcerer to bind it to the earthly plane, began to travel back to Hell. The Boston Group barely escaped in Welshie's plane, which had been, as mentioned, brought with them. The destruction of Tamaron's soul shard, which occurred upon the instant of the death of the Thing in the Pit, filled him with a pain that he could barely comprehend; he was almost knocked into a coma-like state, which would have killed his astral form and destroyed him completely. Yet whatever remained of his instinctive drive towards survival prevented him from falling apart totally. He could not even return to Gerber's body, as it had slipped through the fading continent and was pulped upon hitting the ground below. Any of Gerber's followers, military or otherwise, died from the resulting fall as well. Tamaron would remain trapped in Hell for several decades, in torturous pain and bodiless madness eclipsing that which he had suffered sans body before. It would only be his steely resolve, and the suffering of another that would allow him to eventually become strong enough to escape. Aftermath The Boston Group successfully landed in Berlin, where they eventually managed to return to the United States. From that point forward, they stopped adventuring for good, at least as a team. Gregory O'Grady became the President of the United States, serving six consecutive terms until his death in 1953—on Earth-20181, thus, he replaced Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the President during World War II and the Great Depression. Doctor Clementine pursued a life as a burglar until his death sometime in the '60s. Ashley Jean-Claude vanished without a trace in 1937 and was believed to have been murdered. Welshie pursued a life of exploring, and was somehow still alive by 1992. Thomas J. Carlson, having been transformed into a vampire, fought in World War II and was also was reported alive and living in Japan in 1992. Michael Owen died of a heart attack in the mid-'50s, but this was not the end of him; in reality, upon his death in 1922, Snaps McGee had used the Book of Akinos to transfer his soul into his ward. He would continue to take on new bodies until 1992, when, in the form of “Peanuts” Parker, he was slain by Tamaron in the form of Brocelyn Hogarth Brant. Having himself been terrified by the appearance of the infernal continent, Adolf Hitler declared himself Fuehrer of the Third Reich in early 1933 and commenced World War II in 1934, five years early. The War, as on Earth-Alpha, finished in 1945 with the defeat of the Axis. Such was Tamaron's mark on this world; many more millions died on Earth-20181 than did in the “normal” timeline. Despite leaving this behind, Karl Gerber had been the host of the Tamaron Entity for one of the shortest periods, having lived as Tamaron for only six years. Personality and Traits As Karl Gerber, Tamaron maintained the patience he had gained as Charles Titan, but he also brought with him his intense hatred of the Boston Group. He was willing to go to any end to destroy them, spending five years slowly traveling across the ocean into Germany to acquire a host that could support his presence, and from there, manipulating Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany into being mere pawns in his scheme. Yet at the same time, his old desire for efficiency caused him to perhaps act too quickly, using his resources only to the point of summoning the infernal continent, which was itself only a tool to advance the deaths of the Group. Indeed, he would later reflect that he acted rashly, having ignored much of the potential of the continent and its inhabitants, instead giving in to the temptation of living as the Thing in the Pit; which was another personal regret of his, as he had not used the beast to its full potential, and had indeed skimped on researching the creature before attempting to possess it. In spite of these rather grievous flaws (probably responsible for the relatively briefness of Tamaron's life as Gerber), he was willing to surrender some of his personal morals to complete his revenge, demonstrating his efficiency. He did not believe in the Nazi cause but forced himself to go along with it so that he could still leech off of Hitler's charisma and power. Nevertheless, he would later look back on Gerber's life and be ashamed of having compromised himself so totally, even if it meant possibly achieving victory over his hated foes. In this reflection, he minimized his guilt by convincing himself that he had nearly overwhelmed the Boston Group and thus justified everything he did as Gerber. This served to highlight the chief property of Gerber's existence as a Tamaron host; Gerber showed that Tamaron, no matter what form he assumed, justified his lengthened lifespan by declaring war, oftentimes literally, on those who interfered with his many plans. When the communication between the two Tamarons across the span of the Multiverse created a time echo, Tamaron became full of fear, though he did not know why. He eventually decided it best to forget the incident, and ultimately, he did. Trivia * It seems as though the name “Karl Gerber” is a reference to Karl Germer (1885-1962, who was an occultist who became the leader of the Ordo Templi Orientis, the mystic organization of Aleister Crowley, upon the latter's death in 1947. Crowley served as the inspiration for Cyrus Sincodemius. However, in the Author's Notes, Frank Jenkins calls this merely a “happy coincidence”, saying instead that the name is “probably” a reference to Hans Gruber, the villain from Die Hard. In the official art, Gerber is drawn to resemble Gruber. * Gerber may also be based partially on Rudolf Hess, a Nazi politician who, when captured in 1941, began to ramble in ways that the British government believed to be pertaining to the occult. Aleister Crowley was almost brought in to interrogate him but it never came to pass. It is of note that the man who requested Crowley's presence was Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond books; Crowley was later turned by Fleming into Le Chiffre, the main villain of the first Bond novel, ''Casino Royale ''(1953). * In general, Gerber's placement is based on the supposed usage of the occult by the Nazis. The Nazis were said to have searched the world for occult signs of Aryan superiority, including looking for lost races like the Hyperboreans, as well as occult artifacts like the Spear of Destiny. Though it remains possible that the stories of Nazis investigating such things are false, the tales have grounded themselves heavily in culture, notably in media such as the Indiana Jones films, the ''Hellboy ''comic series, and the 1980s DC Comics series ''All-Star Squadron. * Those with engineering backgrounds seem to be good hosts for the Tamaron Entity. Gerber initially wanted to become an engineer (but was poor at it), while James Marvel was a rocket scientist. Sources and Appearances * ''The Life of Mocata, Volume I ''(cameo) * ''The Life of Mocata, Volume II ''(mentioned in subsequent volumes)